No messing around. I'm going to dive right
back into the subject of becoming a "student of markets".

As you know, once in a while I give a class on copywriting
and/or selling by mail. One of the questions I like to ask
my students is: "If you and I both owned a hamburger stand
and we were in a contest to see who would sell the most
hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on
your side?"

The answers vary. Some people say they would like to have
the advantage of having superior meat from which to make
their hamburgers. Others say they want sesame seed buns.
Others mention location. Someone usually wants to be able to
offer the lowest prices.

And so on.

Anyway, after my students are finished telling what
advantages they would most like to have I say to them:
"O.K., I'll give you every single advantage you asked for.
I, myself, only want one advantage and, if you will give it
to me, I will whip the pants off of all of you when it comes
to selling burgers!"

"What advantage do you want?" they ask.

"The only advantage I want," I reply, "is A STARVING CROWD!"

Think about it.

What I am trying to teach you here is to constantly be on
the look out for groups of people (markets) who have
demonstrated that they are starving (or at least hungry!)
for some particular product or service.

How do you measure this hunger? Well, fortunately, if you
are working with mailing lists, it is rather easy. Let's
take an example: Suppose you want to sell a book on how to
invest money and you have created a direct mail promotion
designed to sell this book. Who do you mail your promotion
to? Here are some possibilities:

Possibility #1 - We could mail it to people whose names and
address we get right out of a telephone book.

Comments: This is a terrible idea. There are too many
non-prospects in this kind of group. The only thing in
common that people in the phone book have is that they all
have a phone. Some of the people won't have any money to
invest. Some of them never purchase anything by mail. Some
of them are too busy (or uninterested) to even read your
letter. Some of them don't even know how to read! In short
there is too much waste circulation. This is like shooting
with a shotgun instead of a rifle.

Onward.

Possibility #2 - We could mail our promotion to people whose
names and addresses we get from a phone book but only to
those people who live in high income areas.

Comments: This is a little better, but not nearly good
enough. High income areas are, incidentally, easy to
identify because several companies have compiled statistics
on every zip code in the United States and they can tell you
with great accuracy the average income per person in each
zip code. They can also, by the way, tell you the average
education level; average age, how much they spend on
automobiles and a bunch of other stuff.

However, as I said, this still isn't nearly good enough. For
one thing, not everybody who lives in a high-income area has
a high income. Some of these people might be the maids or
gardeners or some other type of servant. (Come to think of
it, I'm not so sure that quite a few gardeners aren't
wealthy.) Some of these people may have money but are not
interested in investing. Some of them may always buy books
from a bookstore and never by mail. Some of these people
can't read English. (There are more and more rich foreigners
in our country.) Some of them may have money to invest but
are only interested in investing in areas in which they
already have expertise.

Whatever. Once again we are shooting with a shotgun instead
of a rifle. Once again, too much waste circulation.

Let's see if we can do a little better.

Possibility #3 - We could mail our piece to a group of
people that we are relatively sure have above average
incomes. Like doctors. Lawyers. Architects. Top executives.
Accountants. Owners of expensive homes. Owners of Rolls
Royce automobiles.

And so on.

Comments: Not bad. We are now getting into areas where we at
least have a chance.

At least we are relatively sure that most of these people
have a high enough income to maybe be interested in
investing. Whether they are interested or not, we can't
know, but at least, if they are, they probably have the
ability to do some investing. This group of people is
certainly more likely to respond to our pitch than the first
two groups but, as you shall see, we can do a lot better.

Possibility #4 - We could mail our promotion to a list of
upper income people who are proven mail order buyers. Buyers
of what, you ask? Actually, for the purposes of selling by
mail, it is generally true that mail order buyers of
anything are better than almost any group of non-mail order
buyers. And, in this case, we have added the extra
qualifications that they must be wealthy mail order buyers.

Comments: Now we are getting down to business. This is the
first group I have described that gives us a reasonable shot
at success. Not bad. Not bad at all. But now, let's stop
fooling around and go for the hill!

Possibility #5 - We could mail our promotion to a group of
wealthy people who have ordered some other investment book
by mail.

Comments: Bingo! Now we're cooking. What could be better?
They are upper income. They are mail order buyers. And, they
have purchased BY MAIL a product similar to ours. What could
be better? This is just about as "hot" of a list as we can
get! Or is it? Actually, it is not. Let's keep trying.

Possibility #6 - We could mail our promotion to a list of
wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product
similar to ours - several times!

Comments: Yeah! Now we're cooking! Just imagine. They're MO
buyers. They're wealthy! They've purchased (by mail) a
product similar to ours. AND they are repeat buyers of this
type of product. How sweet it is! Can it get any sweeter?
Yes, dear Son, it can! Read on.

Possibility #7 - We could mail our promotion to a list of
wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product
similar to ours - several times AND WHO HAVE PAID BIG MONEY
FOR WHAT THEY BOUGHT.

Comments: Goody. These people are very close to the "crème
de la crème" of lists we can mail to. But wait! Why do I say
they are "very close" to the best? After all, what more
could we ask for? Hold on! We're not done yet.

But not quite. Just keep reading.

Possibility #8 - We could mail our promotion to a
list of wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a
product similar to ours - and who have done so repeatedly -
and who have paid big money for what they purchased - AND
WHO HAVE VERY RECENTLY MADE SUCH A PURCHASE!

Comments: This is almost as good a list as we can
get. It is certainly the best list we are likely to be able
to rent.

But not quite. Just keep reading.

Possibility #9 - We could mail our promotion to a list of
people who have all the characteristics of possibility #8
AND WHO OUR FRIENDLY LIST BROKER TELLS US IS WORKING LIKE
CRAZY FOR OTHER MAILERS WITH PROMOTIONS SIMILAR TO OURS.

Comments: For a variety of reasons, many lists that should
work don't. Who knows why? It really doesn't matter why.
What matters is that a list is or is not responsive. And the
best way to know what lists are hot is to have a good
relationship with a good honest broker. In fact, if you have
a good relationship with a good broker one of the things he
will do (because it is to his financial advantage) is to
keep an eye out for hot lists that are likely to work for
your offers. And now, with this last list we have finally
and truly identified the best list you can mail to.

Almost.

Yep. We can still do better!

Possibility #10 - There is one group of people who will
respond even better than all the other 9 groups I have
described. Can you guess what list this will be? Think about
it a minute and then turn the page for the answer.

THE BEST LIST OF ALL IS
YOUR OWN CUSTOMER LIST!

Comments: All other things being equal, your own customers
should respond far better than any other list you can get.
Of course there is one caveat. THEY MUST BE SATISFIED
CUSTOMERS!